Dallas City Hall rezoned a neighborhood to keep it affordable. Disaster resulted.
not to make the mistake of interfering in the renewal of a neighborhood of small homes near Love Field known as Elm Thicket., but that’s not particularly uncommon. A council majority instead decided that the right way to ensure affordable housing in Dallas is to scare away developers who might want to build here.Elm Thicket was downzoned. Rights that landowners enjoyed when they bought their properties were stripped away.
What a humiliation for the city. The Elm Thicket rezoning was hugely controversial. It was covered in every major media outlet. Dozens of people showed up to speak out at City Hall. But somehow the folks in the planning department didn’t get the memo.Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has sounded the right level of frustration.
It’s no secret Dallas’ permitting department has not performed well in recent years. If Tolbert can get some accountability even in an interim role that will be a step forward. But we need to be asking a deeper question, Dallas. Why are we telling people who want to invest in our city that their investment isn’t welcome? It’s the City Council’s social engineering at the root of this mess. The rest of us are paying for it.. Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper. The board considers a broad range of topics and is overseen by the Editorial Page Editor.
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